Parachute trial: Wife 'shouldn't have survived parachute plunge'

The wife of an Army sergeant accused of tampering with her parachute said she should have never survived a 4,000ft fall, a court has been told.Victoria Cilliers, 42, suffered multiple injuries in a fall in Wiltshire in April 2015.Emile Cilliers, 37, denies two counts of attempted murder and one of recklessly endangering life. Mrs Cilliers told the court she could not categorically say if it was or was not an accident.But added: “Never in the history of parachuting worldwide has it happened”.In a three-hour police interview, shown to Winchester Crown Court, the former Army officer spoke of her time in hospital after the near-fatal fall at Netheravon Airfield in which she suffered broken vertebrae, ribs and pelvis.The 42-year-old told detectives she “shouldn’t have survived” that.”It’s not really a conceivable accident, you can’t categorically say it was not an accident, you can’t categorically say it was, but never in the history of parachuting worldwide has it happened.”

Prosecutors allege Mr Cilliers, a sergeant with the Aldershot-based Royal Army Physical Training Corps, twisted the lines of her main parachute and sabotaged a reserve chute the day before her jump.Mrs Cilliers told officers how her husband did not visit her very often in the hospital and showed little interest in her.She said: “I said ‘I love you’ and he did not reply, which is harsh in that situation, really… harsh.”She also spoke of how he had been “absolutely livid” after confronting him about smoking in the car adding it was the “one time” she was “scared” and had “never seen that kind of look on someone before”.Mr Cilliers denies two counts of attempted murder and one of damaging a gas valve, recklessly endangering life. The trial was adjourned until Monday.
Source: BBC Hamp